This Week In History
Nov 17, 1869
The Suez Canal opened to navigation. The canal linked the Mediterranean to the Red Sea and cut the trip from London to Bombay by 4,000 miles
1939: nazi troops stormed universities in Czechoslovakia after demonstrations against the German occupation
1969: The Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) between the US and the Soviet Union opened in Helsinki
1989: Tens of thousands of people marched through Prague demanding an end to communist rule in Czechoslovakia
2014: A second doctor died in the United States after contracting Ebola while working in Sierra Leone
Nov 18, 2016
Ferdinand Marcos, former dictator of the Philippines, was finally laid to rest in a secret ceremony almost three decades after his death
1307: William Tell shot an apple off his son’s head with a crossbow, an act that inspired a Swiss revolt against austria
1883: The United States adopted standard time and divided the country into four time zones
2004: a law permitting divorce came into effect in Chile. It is now illegal only in the Philippines and the vatican City
2009: Iran’s chief of staff warned Saudi Arabia over its offensive against Shiite Yemeni rebels
Nov 19, 1999
China launched its first, unmanned Shenzhou spacecraft. It landed safely after 21 hours in orbit and was recovered from the desert in Inner Mongolia
1949: Prince rainier III was sworn in as the 30th ruling Prince of monaco
1969: Press reports of the My Lai massacre by US troops in 1968 sparked outrage in the US
1994: The un authorised nato warplanes to strike targets in Croatia used for Serbian air attacks on bosnia
2006: Nintendo released the Wii, the first video game console with motion control, inspiring new markets in fitness gaming
Nov 20, 2009
The Oasis Of The Seas, first in a new class of cruise ships 40% bigger than any of its rivals, was unveiled. It was the first ship able to carry over 6,000 passengers
1929: Catalan artist Salvador dali held his first one-man show in Paris
1979: A band of 200 armed militants seized the Great Mosque in Mecca, the holiest of all Islamic shrines
1994: The angolan government and unita rebels signed a peace treaty after 19 years of civil war
2004: NASA launched its Swift spacecraft to gather data on gamma-rays that could reveal clues about the creation of the universe
Nov 21, 1964
The Verrazano-narrows Bridge, marking the gateway to New York harbour, was opened. It was at the time the longest single-span bridge in the world
1953: The 1912 discovery in southern england of the prehistoric “Piltdown man” skull was revealed to be a hoax
1969: The first permanent ARPANET link between computers across the US was established
1994: nato launched the biggest air strike in its 45-year history against a rebel Serb-held airfield in Croatia
2004: Leading creditor nations agreed to cancel 80% of Iraq’s Us$39bill debt
Nov 22, 1819
British novelist George Eliot was born as Mary Ann Evans. Her works include
Middlemarch, regarded as one of the greatest novels in the English language
1989: Lebanon’s newly elected president, rene muawad, was assassinated in west beirut
1995: Toy Story, the first feature-length film created using computer-generated imagery, was released
2009: Computer hackers released evidence of data manipulation to support the case for man-made climate change
2015: Nola, a 41-year-old white rhino, died. At the time she was one of only four remaining animals of this species
Nov 23, 2009
The vaccination largest-ever campaign yellow got fever underway, mass targeting 11.9 million people across Benin, Liberia and Sierra Leone
534BC: Thespis of Icaria became the first recorded actor to portray a character on stage
1434: London’s River Thames froze over. It last froze over in 1963
1889: The world’s first “jukebox”, a coin-operated wax cylinder phonograph, was installed in San Francisco
2015: Blue Origin’s unmanned rocket landed back on its original launch pad after travelling to space, the first time this had been accomplished